MAILER - The Executioners Song

In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.

Grand Central Publishing Edition

Copyright 1979 by Norman Mailer, Lawrence Schiller, and The New Ingot Company, Inc.

Foreword Copyright 2012 by Dave Eggers

Author photo Nancy Crampton

Photographic insert, Gary Gilmore letters, and responses to interview questions courtesy of Polaris Communications, Inc.

The author is grateful to the following corporations and individuals for permission to quote material as noted below:

Barry Farrell for excerpts from Merchandising Gary Gilmores Dance of Death in New West, December 20, 1976.

Good Morning America for excerpt from broadcast of November 17, 1976, copyright 1976 by American Broadcasting Company.

The Los Angeles Times for material by David Johnston, copyright 1976 Los Angeles Times; and material by William Endicott, copyright 1978 Los Angeles Times. Used by permission.

The New York Times for excerpt 1976 by The New York Times Company.

Slow Dancing Music, Inc., for lines from Old Shep, copyright 1935 Whitehall Music, assigned to Slow Dancing Music, Inc., 1978. All rights administered by Slow Dancing Music, Inc.

Tree Publishing Company, Inc., for lines from Busted, words and music by Harlan Howard copyright 1962 by Tree Publishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Veronica Music Inc. for lines from Paloma Blanca by Hans Bouwens copyright 1975 Witch Music.

All rights for the United States and Canada controlled by Veronica Music Inc. and WB Music Corp.

The author is also grateful to the Daily Herald, Deseret News, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, National Enquirer, New Times, and the Salt Lake Tribune.

This Grand Central Publishing edition is published by arrangement with Little, Brown and Company.

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.

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ISBN 978-1-4555-1083-2

To Norris, to John Buffalo, and to Scott Meredith

Nancy Crampton

NORMAN MAILER (19232007) was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating from Harvard, he served in the South Pacific during World War II. He published his first book, The Naked and the Dead, in 1948. Mailer won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Armies of the Night, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize again in 1980 for THE EXECUTIONERS SONG. He directed four feature-length films, and was president of the American PEN from 1984 to 1986. The Time of Our Time, an anthology of the best of Mailers writing, was published in May of 1998 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Mailers literary debut. In 2005, he won the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation.

Norman Mailer is a man of wisdom and perception who tells a good story powerfully and well.

The New Yorker

A stupendous success.

John Cheever, Chicago Tribune

Not since The Grapes of Wrath has there been an American book that so discovered the voices in our culture.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Theres no such thing as a minor figure in this panoramic study of crime and punishment, madness and greed, sex and religiosity, karma and universal guilt. All turn out to be complex, quivering human beings because of Mailers compassion a masterwork.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

I read the book with fascination from beginning to end enthralling stunningly candid.

New York Times

The best journalist in the country Mailers style and language are impeccable. His decision to tell it all as it was, to focus on the awful magnification, the greed, the adrenal hunt of the media for news-entertainment, the working of myth in life and death, is intrinsically right.

Los Angeles Times

A phenomenal feat an extraordinary demonstration of [Mailers] novelistic skills. By God, the book is good.

Newsweek

A masterpiece a brilliant, maybe a great novel.

New Republic

Absorbing, scary, and startlingly funny Mailer has pulled off something phenomenal.

Village Voice

A literary landmark an incredible reading experience easily the publishing event of the year.

Playboy

Mailer has been good before; this time hes simply great Not since Truman Capotes In Cold Blood has there been a book as compelling as this one. It is a book that will stand the test of time.

West Coast Review of Books

A near-flawless craft a compelling, constantly informative narrative.

Nation

He is simply the finest prose stylist at work in American letters its finest storyteller. It is a privilege to read this book.

New Haven Register

An extraordinary book.

Houston Post

Elevated by Mailers genius into art a harrowing, absolutely eyes-on account.

Houston Chronicle

The most sustained, impressive book of his long career Ultimately, it takes on a quiet grandeur thats close to Tolstoyan Its his whole vision of America, high and low, damned and saved There is more compassion, understanding, and sense of truth here than in any recent American novel you can name.

Boston Phoenix

Only Mailer, with his uncanny eye for the telling quote, the relevant detail, could have pulled all this together and fashioned from it such a compelling social document.

Denver Post

The Naked and the Dead

The Deer Park

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